


The Goldstein Sisters

by olivemartini



Series: Miscalleneous Newt/Tina [7]
Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Protective Newt, idk - Freeform, insecure Tina, mean people
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-22
Updated: 2017-11-22
Packaged: 2019-02-05 09:54:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12792072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/olivemartini/pseuds/olivemartini
Summary: She'd gotten used to it, being the lackluster grey to Queenie's brilliant radiance.  And she'd gotten used to everyone else seeing it to, had the lost the sting when eyes slide off of her to rest on Queenie, to always be the shadow to her sun.  But somehow, she hadn't thought of what it would feel like when it might be Newt that sees it, Newt that turns away, Newt that finally sees the which sister is better.She was scared of that, she knew, but she was pretty sure she didn't have to be.





	The Goldstein Sisters

Tina knows she isn't pretty.

She isn't ugly, either, but that doesn't matter, not when you have a sister like Queenie.  She'd gotten used to having glances slide over her and move straight to her sister, had realized that she would always be the shadow to her sisters sunny smile, had gotten used to the idea that Queenie could waltz through doors that Tina had to force her way through ust by batting her eyelashes.  And it didn't matter, not so much, not when she was comforting herself with the knowledge that yes, Queenie was pretty and has men tripping over themselves to open doors and offer assistance, but Tina was a career girl, damn it, and she was single by choice.  Who has time for a man when you're building a future, breaking down barriers and capturing bad guys?

Certainly not Tina, at least she had thought, so she swallowed down the uncomfortable feeling in her throat whenever she had to walk down the hall side by side with Tina, the forgotten piece to every conversation, a taste in her mouth so much like shame when she realizes that it might be more enjoyable for everyone to have not been here at all.  She doesn't blame Queenie for it, not when other things are so hard for Queenie, but she does wish sometimes that her jokes could be funnier and her smile prettier, that charm could slip off her tongue and win her way into the inner circles of the afterwork parties Queenie forces her to attend, that she could feel what it is to be found beautiful, just one time.

 _The Goldstein sisters,_ they would say, whispering behind their hands as Tina and Queenie enter a room, Queenie leading the way like the shining star she is and Tina trailing behind, trying to fade into the background.   _The golden girl who glitters like sunshine and the one who fades into the background, like every miserable shade of grey all put together.  Queenie's the one you want, but make sure you don't make fun of her sister, or you'll be in the doghouse faster than you can blink._

It hadn't bothered her. At least, it hadn't bothered her until someone told that same thing to Newt, and suddenly it was all she could think about, how plain she was, how ugly, how bad she was at the game of charms and flattery. And she couldn't stand to watch him come to that same realization, too.

She didn't hear what was said.  Something awful and cruel, judging by the shock on Newt's face, and she felt her face heat up in spite of herself.  Everyone was laughing, even the coworkers she thought to call friends, even the ones she thought were kind.  Tina could feel tears pricking her eyes, and she didn't move, even though every inch of her was screaming at her to leave, to turn and walk away before things got worse.

(Before Newt laughs, was the real reason, because she did not think she could bear it if he laughed at her now, when he had personally invited her as his date to this high class dinner and she put on a new dress, so soft and silken that she thought she could actually pass as pretty until she heard their laughter.)

But Newt wasn't laughing.  Instead there was a hand on her arm, as gentle as it always was, but when he spoke there was a steel in his voice that she had never heard before.

"Apologize to Ms. Goldstein,"  He said, and the room fell silent, all of them teetering on the edge between laughter and trepidation, where they tried to figure out if this was serious or it he was just making a punch line to another joke.  But then they got a look at his face, and the room fell quiet, and no one was laughing at her any longer.  "Apologize this minute."

She tried to tell him it was fine, that making a scene would be worse, that she didn't want more mockery directed at her, not one a night that was supposed to be special for him.  She wanted to explain how this was normal, how this was how things worked out sometimes, and how what he had said wasn't even a lie, not really.  She was the ugly sister, the lackluster rain cloud to Queenie's radiance.  But she couldn't, not with everyone staring at her, and not with her seeming to be frozen in place.

"Why?"  The man was too drunk on too many swallows of something, and he didn't heed the warnings his friends were giving him.  He should have.  "I was only telling the truth.  She's downright annoying, that one, don't see why she's here.  It's not because of her pretty face, that's for sure."

And he said something else, something crude that made even the meanest of the women gasp, and then Newt's hand was off of her arm as he lunged, wand forgotten, and threw all his weight behind the punch that broke the bastard's nose.

 

 

 

One thing about it: It was a memorable night, even if it wasn't a good one.

 

 

 

"I've made a right botch of things,"  He tells her later, wincing from behind the ice pressed to his face.  It would be a quick fix once she found where it was broken, but there were a lot of different places she believed to have been broken, and for now that meant a lot of poking and prodding. Newt was many things, but a fighter was not one of them.  "I didn't mean to upset you."

Tina hadn't been upset exactly, just flustered and embrarrassed and unsure why Newt thought she was worth the trouble.  "I'm not upset,"  She said, dipping the cloth back in the warm water to wash away the dried blood on his face.  "I just thought it was a lot of trouble to go to, for someone like me."

"He was rude to you."  He said it simply, like of course the next step would be to defend her honor to the last breath.  Even when he could only stand with the help of two men, with blood streaming from his mouth and his right eye all swollen, he was still demanding an apology.  And finally the man had given it, once he had sobered up enough and realized what he had said.  "It had to be done."

Tina felt tears in her eyes again, and couldn't let him see them, not after everything, so she broke this unspoken rule between them and leaned into him, pressing her face into his neck.  Every muscle in his body went tense, but he put his arm around her all the same, and she stayed there, wondering what she would do when he ever decided to leave.

 

 

 

It happened twice more before she decided to put a stop to it.

Once, when they were out on the street and some no-maj had hollered after them, telling her he could teach her what a real man felt like.  And again, when he picked her up for her lunch date and a paper boy had the mistake of making a joke at her expense, believing that the great Newt Scamander must be in the wrong place.  There was no way he could be there to pick up someone as plain as Tina Goldstein.  No, her sister maybe, he had said, but certainly not Tina.  And Newt had hexed him so badly that he had to spend a few hours in jail, but thanks to her connections and his war hero status, no one bothered him about it much.

"You might as well get used to it.  What they say."  She had prepared herself for this talk, but her voice still shook, and she started to wash the ishes without magic, anything to have something to do with her hands.  "I'm always going to be the ugly sister, and the girl who overreached herself in the workplace, and the one they call annoying and stubborn and other, more awful things.  It's going to follow me around where ever I go, so you might as well get used to hearing it. You can't fight everyone in the bloody world, Newt."

"Don't say that."  She had blind sided him with this, she knew, and he probably so desperately wanted to run to his animals to give himself time to make sense of this.  But he didn't, just stared at her from his spot at the kitchen table, and she was reminded once again how she didn't have the right to hold a heart like Newt Scamanders.  If she even did.  "It's not true, what they said about you.  You're not-,"

"I'm not beautiful. I'm not charming.  And I'm not always easy to be around."  She offered up a watery smile and threw the rag onto the counter.  "I'm sorry if that embarrasses you, or if you're ashamed to be around someone like that, but I can't change what everyone thinks of me.  Merlin knows I've tried."

And then she whirled around, away from the kitchen, away from him, away from the admission hanging in the air between him, and when he tried to touch her she threw him off, the first time she had ever rejected him in any way.  He stared at her with eyes that showed the extent of the sting, and she thought  _this is it, this is how it ends_ before leaving the room for good.

 

 

It's Queenie who comes to her.  She had heard Newt open his suitcase a while ago, and knew he wouldn't return for hours.

"You're unfair to him, you know."  Queenie says, in that soft voice she uses when she knows she's about to make Tina angry, when she knows the truth it something she shouldn't know but does anyways.  "He thinks the world of you.  And he thinks you're the most beautiful woman he's ever seen, and doesn't get why the others don't understand that.  He doesn't know what to do with himself, he's so in love with you."

 _You have no right,_ she thinks first, and then  _liar, liar_ but doesn't say it.  Instead she says what she always thought was the truth.  "But I'm not beautiful."  She could bring out examples if she wanted, and the thought of that brought them to the front of her mind, just as painful as when they first happened.  She could tell that Tina heard her remembering, because her eyes softened and the lines of her shoulders seemed to melt.  "I'm nothing but plain old Porpentina, like they say."

"You're beautiful to him."  Her voice is gentle but it hurts, somehow.  "Try to remember that, okay?"

 

 

 

The next time someone calls her plain, Newt doesn't say anything, just keeps his silence and his anger all to himself;  They leave quickly after that, every inch of him poised and his hands curled into fists, and as soon as they hit the street he rounds on her, forcing her to take a step backwards into the brick wall behind.

"You are not what they say.  Don't you believe it for one second, Tina."  His eyes were a startling blue, when he really let you look into them.  "You are smart, and kind, and strong, and someday you'll be better than all of them and even they will have to admit it, I know it."

"They're not saying I'm not smart."  There's a whine in her voice, a plea, and then finally came the tears, rushing down her cheeks.  She stamps her foot on the ground like a little girl and hits his chest with the heel of her palm.  "They know I'm smart, and responsible, and all those other boring things. What they're saying is, I'm not  _pretty,_ not like-,"

He cuts her off with a ferocity that he's never shown before, not towards her.  "You're pretty like you."  And then he surges forward, pressing her all the way back to the brick, and they are kissing, the first time they've ever done that.  She's waited, wanting one of them finally to cross the line they've been tiptoeing around, but she did not think it would be like this, with strangers racing around them and tears drying on her face.  When he pulls away from her, his hand is still on her cheek, and it slides down to rest on her shoulder.  "You're beautiful, Tina Goldstein."

 

 

 

She doesn't believe him, not then, but Tina has the feeling that if he tells her often enough, she might come to see the truth in it.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> come find me on Instagram @olive.writes.fanfic


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